This time of year is . . .
A lot of things. Well, it’s supposed to be anyway. For spending time with people you care about. For giving. For counting the blessings of a year almost over. For looking forward to a clean slate, a new twelve months full of promise. Of believing in something bigger than ourselves. For goodness sake.
What this season ends up being, however, through no fault but our own, is a race to the finish, a ridiculously expectant time to check off so-called traditions that are seldom enjoyed but often dreaded. A self-induced season of stress. This is no judgy-wudgy Sister Rain talking. I am standing up to be counted guilty as charged . . . before I collapse from this most wonderful time of the year.
Just let me first check my list, check it twice, and add thrice as many things as I check off.
Figure Out What Gifts To GetBuy Gifts- Wrap Gifts
Decorate Outside Of HouseDecorate Inside Of HousePut Tree UpDecorate TreeCard ConceptCard PropsShoot CardDesign CardOrder CardsGet StampsAddress CardsMail Cards- Make Cookie Batter
Bake CookiesPlan Christmas Dinner- Shop For Christmas Dinner
- Prepare Christmas Dinner
Don’t get me wrong, I love giving gifts and eating cookies and my twinkley house with its decked halls. I do. But what we are able to accomplish year after year in a few weeks’ time is nothing short of a miracle. Daunting from the last leftover turkey sandwich in late November until we settle down for a much-needed, well-deserved long winter’s nap Christmas night.
Of course this isn’t the “I got my sight back” miracle we all equate that word with. It’s the “little” impossible things we pull off every December: Staying up late to finish the scarf you started knitting in July for your best friend in the perfect shade of blue you spent an hour finding in the yarn store to match her eyes. Spending three days to make the cookies your Nana always made, the smell of the flour reminding you of her arms wrapped around you in a hug. Putting your poor parrot through picture taking to get the perfect “pose” to give your friends and family a laugh when they open the envelope in the midst of their own Christmas craziness. Sitting around the table on The Big Day with the feast you’ve prepared, talking with your nephew about the trip across the country you’ll take him on next fall as his gift. December 26th when you finally get to enjoy your tree, unwrapped gifts underneath, your feet up, warm and cozy. It’s over. You did it. And because you did, someone’s holiday was a “little” brighter.
The perception is that we take on the madness for all the wrong reasons but at the end of the day, THAT DAY, we know in our hearts that our relentless actions and intentions were about so much more than the season. It comes down to love. The biggest miracle of them all.
